Basic Metagame

The gameplay for Scarlet / Violet Wondrous Hackmons has two main sections: item removal and breaking / sweeping. Most teams in this format are built with Pokémon designed to either support or to deny this gameplan.

Wonder Guards are the main thing preventing a Huge Power Mewtwo-Mega-X or some other sweeper or breaker from KOing everything, but are dependent on keeping their Ability Shields intact. This necessitates item removal, which comes in mainly the form of Corrosive Gas but can also be seen in Trick, Knock Off, and most uniquely Magic Room. Due to item removal being so crucial to making progress, absorbing or punishing item removal attempts (primarily from Corrosive Gas) is key. This mainly comes in the form of Magic Bounce, which will reflect Corrosive Gas back onto your opponent and remove their item instead. Certain unique Pokémon are also able to absorb Corrosive Gas, the main example of this being Arceus when it holds a Plate, although any Pokémon that is holding an item that normally changes its form will also serve this niche. Ironically enough, a breaker is usually what is able to force a Wonder Guard to lose their Ability Shield, if a team is not equipped to handle said breaker. Said breakers come in a few different forms, but the most important ones usually have Huge Power or No Guard, although some others exist such as Mold Breaker and Hadron Engine. No Guard will almost always force in a Wonder Guard, unless your opponent happens to have a non-Wonder Guard answer to OHKO moves, but No Guard tends to have a hard time doing much else. Huge Powers and physical Mold Breakers tend to be answered by Fur Coat users whereas Pokémon with great special bulk (such as Kyogre-Primal and Ho-Oh) and/or Ice Scales tend to answer special Mold Breakers and Hadron Engines. Due to not being as reliant on their item (unlike Wonder Guards), Fur Coat / Ice Scales Pokémon are usually more comfortable with losing their item, and thus can be used to deny attempts to force item removal.

As shown earlier, there is more that goes into making a team than just selecting a breaker / sweeper and two Wonder Guards- you also need to be able to deny item removal attempts, and if that fails, you probably want to have some form of an answer to breakers / sweepers that do not require your Ability Shields to be intact. Once the Ability Shields are gone, you have three main options- KO them first, punish them for coming and/or staying in, or deny progress with something else, and there are a few options for each solution. Certain Pokémon are especially well-suited to revenge killing wincons, such as Huge Power Slaking with Fake Out and Extreme Speed. For punishing wincons from switching and/or staying in, entry hazards are the usual solution, although you can also use other things, such as poison from Mortal Spin or chip from a move like Salt Cure or Curse from a Ghost-type. Denying progress is harder to do, and mainly comes in the form of a Pokémon with Prankster (and the move Haze) or Fur Coat / Ice Scales. Prankster is particularly well-suited to dealing with Magic Room sweepers, due to it not relying on its item nearly as much as a Wonder Guard.

Teambuilding Process

To demonstrate the teambuilding process, I'll be making a standard balance team. Any teamstyle can work (other than hyper offense), but balance is the easiest to start learning with. Balance generally starts with two Wonder Guards, and I'll be using a core of Swampert-Mega and Blissey. Swampert-Mega can somewhat take on Mewtwo-Mega-X post-Ability Shield, while Blissey provides near-perfect insurance versus Calyrex-Shadow, especially No Guard variants.

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Next, I know I will need a Fur Coat user, and I would prefer to not use Slowbro-Mega or Ting-Lu, due to them sharing a weakness with Swampert-Mega. I settled upon Solgaleo, due to it resisting Sunsteel Strike and double resisting Photon Geyser, while not having any other bad weaknesses that would cause it to fall apart against most Huge Powers.

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For the fourth Pokémon, I know I still need to fit a way to block item removal attempts. Since I don't need my Magic Bouncer to function as a Huge Power wall, I can safely run something weak to Sunsteel Strike, so a good fit for this team is Arceus-Fairy. Arceus-Fairy is able to completely shut down item removal attempts, and even punishes attempts to use Corrosive Gas. It also can serve as an emergency check to Groudon-Primal, which would otherwise destroy this team. I will likely still need a second answer to Groudon-Primal, however.

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I still have not added a breaker or sweeper, so that will be my fifth Pokémon. I settled upon a sweeper set for Mewtwo-Mega-Y with Dazzling and Magical Torque. Solgaleo can easily Imposter-proof this, which means Imposter will not even be able to force me to lose an Ability Shield on one of my Wonder Guards.

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I have a free slot left on this team, and I decided to fill it with a good anti-offense Pokémon that can also help force some progress- Huge Power Slaking. Slaking is able to force out sweepers post-setup with the combination of Fake Out and Extreme Speed, which helps out a lot with sweepers that Solgaleo or my Wonder Guards cannot handle (such as Groudon-Primal).

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The team is now done. Here is the final poképaste for it: https://pokepast.es/51a864cd73596093. I hope this guide will be useful for any new players looking to start building and playing Wondrous Hackmons, and I am available on Discord in the Wondrous Hackmons server if anyone has any questions or wants more help.